Part Two: Svay Pak’s glimmers of hope (with video)

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun03.23.2012

A rape cell in Svay Pak.Courtesy Tim Doak
/ www.timdoak.me.uk

Pastor Chantha Hem ministers to 250 of Svay Pak's 4,000 citizens. He also actively tries to rescue some of the village's 2,000 children from forced labour in both the sex trade and nearby brick factories.Courtesy
/ Ratanak International

Svay Pak, Cambodia: Agape International Missions founders Bridget and Don Brewster live on the top floor of a former brothel. Because of their efforts to rescue children from the sex trade, almost every night crowds gather outside The Sanctuary, pelt rocks at the building and shout death threats at them. This camera is the only thing that stands guard.Courtesy
/ Ratanak International

Related

Svay Pak is a hellhole, a dirty, stinking slum of about 4,000 people. It’s also notorious for being one of few places where men can pay for sex with children as young as three.

When Pastor Chantha Hem, his wife, Bunthan, and their baby son came here three years ago from Phnom Penh, they moved into a former brothel. Their pink room, upstairs, had been reserved for the raping of virgins.

Downstairs, there were bare-walled cells with wooden slatted beds and sleeping mats that had been rented out by the hour, mostly to foreign men who wanted to have sex with children.

“I am not just a pastor,” Hem says. “We try to stop child trafficking. Sometimes we confront traffickers and gangsters. This is my challenge ...

“The foreigners come night and day. Sometimes I pretend like a pimp and we have communications with them and we try to record it and we try to get information to give to the police. It is very dangerous. But we have to try to stop this.”

The pastor says 90 per cent of an estimated 2,000 children in this village have been sold to a pimp or a brothel owner and been sexually abused.

“Most are abandoned by their parents and live with their grandparents or a neighbour or some other relative. The moms are gone ... It’s very difficult to forgive the parents.”

Among his 250 parishioners, Hem says 12 or 13 are former brothel owners — both men and women. Among their business partners, he says, were government officials and even army officers.

“They told me that when you sell children who are five, six, seven or eight years old, you feel shame. Your heart feels guilty ... But now they come to church. Some are doing good [things] and some are still doing bad things.”

The village, however, has changed.

Because of Hem’s work and other programs funded by Vancouver-based Ratanak International and California-based Agape International Missions, children now have a safe place to go during the day. When AIM took applications for the school it runs, 2,000 children applied along with six villagers in their 80s who had never had the chance before.

The general health of the community has been improved because of AIM’s twice-weekly medical clinic and an annual dental clinic, staffed by American volunteers who fly in and work for a week.

But it hasn’t ended the sexual exploitation. It’s driven it underground, making it harder to detect.

“During the day, you see many girls here. At night, you hardly see any. The brothels, they keep them secretly and move them around from one place to another. Some of them go mostly by [motorcycle] to Phnom Penh at night. But from here they are also sent to Siem Reap and Sihanoukville,” says Hem.

Dangerous

As rewarding as the work is, it may get the pastor killed.

“Many times people have tried to kill me. Right now, every night, they stone my door. They are drunk and have been taking drugs. ‘Come out, we want to kill you,’ they say. I trust Jesus. God has called us to come here and I believe God will protect us.

“Sometimes I feel afraid. When I pray to God I ask him to protect us.”

Ever since he arrived, Hem’s had death threats.

People accuse him of coming here to ruin their business — the business of selling in children.

According to the 2011 U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report — which specifically mentions the child sex trafficking ring in Svay Pak — that business is being run by people “believed to be well-connected and protected from effective government investigation and prosecution.”

The threats against Hem intensified after he rescued two five-year-old girls — one in 2010 and the other late last year — by notifying police that both were about to be sold into sex slavery.

The most recently rescued girl is now in a safe house. Her mother is in jail.

Hem finds it hard to accept his neighbours who sell their own children. But the foreigners who come here to buy them trouble him more.

“They are so rich and they use their money in the wrong way. Why don’t they use their money to help the people? Why don’t they use their money for good? This is the wicked thing in Cambodia.”

Daily kids camp

One of the first things the pastor did when he moved here in 2006 was set up a daily kids camp, a safe place for children to come, play games, sing songs and forget even for a few hours the misery of their lives.

At first, only 16 kids showed up.

“People would not allow their kids to come. So, I would knock on their doors day by day and more and more would come together. At first it was very hard work. We didn’t know anybody and they don’t know Jesus, they had their own culture and religion. They were used to gambling, alcohol and abusing girls.

“At first, I tried to build a relationship between them and us. I would go and hang around every day. We would try to help them. Even if he’s a bad guy, I kept telling myself that God still loves him.”

Soon, the number of kids had doubled. Now, there are days when as many as 500 children attend kids club or the twice-weekly medical clinic — or simply show up to watch cartoons and have some lunch or a snack. Attendance at Sunday church services also increased, to the point that the congregation outgrew the former brothel that had been renamed Rahab’s House.

In 2010, AIM — with funds from Ratanak International — rented a bigger building on the main street. It was to have been a brothel and hotel. It’s now called The Sanctuary.

Moved in eight years ago

Californians Don and Bridget Brewster, who founded Agape International Missions eight years ago, moved into The Sanctuary a year ago. They moved to the top-floor apartment from Phnom Penh, where they’d been living at the organization’s trauma recovery house for rescued girls.

Since opening that safe house in 2006, nearly 200 girls have benefited from the intensive counselling, education and training offered there.

Among them are at least one of the victims of Canada’s first convicted sex tourist, Donald Bakker, and seven girls whose testimony in a California court resulted in ex-Marine and sex tourist Michael Pepe being sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.

Although their home is called The Sanctuary, Bridget admits that it’s frightening to receive nightly death threats and that she frequently cries in the shower where no one can see or hear her.

“It’s the Wild West here ... The other night there was a machete fight outside with boys and girls all drugged up fighting. It’s a little crazy.”

While we talked, the noise at times was almost deafening as about 175 children laughed, screamed and sang their way through kids club.

“I think the worst that I’ve seen is some bloody clothes from a little girl who had been raped during the day,” says Bridget. “A man took her out behind The Sanctuary, behind that big bougainvillea tree, and raped her. Then, she came here.”

But there are successes that make the work worthwhile. One of the rescued girls has now returned to Svay Pak, where she runs her own sewing business and will soon be married.

Still, Bridget says the best thing is seeing kids being kids.

“I never knew how cruel a person could be to totally devalue then totally rob a child of innocence. But to see these girls laugh and be kids again is a look into the future.”

Still, that future is far from guaranteed.

On a second trip to Svay Pak, we walked out of Rahab’s House — where a group of American dentists (many former Vietnam veterans) were working in conditions that looked like a scene from the old television show M*A*S*H — to see four young Americans hunting for children.

Noticing us, the Americans urged the driver of their tuk-tuk — a motorcycle-powered cart — to turn around.

Several people snapped photos of them. A couple of missionary volunteers jumped on motorbikes to follow them.

Will they be charged? Not likely.

It’s not a crime to go to Svay Pak, even though Svay Pak is nothing like Bangkok’s notorious Patpong where tourists now go to shop and take a look at what was once the heart of Southeast Asia’s child sex trade.

There are no signs on the paved road pointing to the small, bumpy trail that passes for Svay Pak’s main street. Even most tuk-tuk, moto and taxi drivers — the decent ones — don’t know how to get here.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

In less than a week, Abbotsford recording artists Hedley went from touring Canada with two supporting acts and a popular new album to pariahs ensnared in allegations of sexual misconduct. On Monday, accusations that band members Jacob Hoggard, Dave Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison had engaged in sexual behaviour with teenage girls surfaced on Twitter […]

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.